Articles & Videos

By Russell Gold Who is the world’s largest operator of wind and solar farms? It’s also America’s most valuable power company. Still stumped? It’s by design. “That is a marketing problem…that we foster intentionally,” Michael O’Sullivan, NextEra Energy Inc.’s head of renewable development, told University of Notre Dame students in 2015. The Florida company has grown into a […]

By Russell Gold Twenty years ago this month, a well was drilled here that changed the world. Nothing at the time suggested the unassuming well in this rural town north of Fort Worth would hobble OPEC, the powerful oil cartel that had governed prices of the world’s most important commodity for more than a generation. […]

By Russell Gold Giant batteries charged by renewable energy are beginning to nibble away at a large market: The power plants that generate extra surges of electricity during peak hours. Known as peakers, the natural-gas-fired plants are expensive to run, and typically are called into service only when demand rises and regular supplies are insufficient. That makes them vulnerable […]

By Scott Patterson and Russell Gold KOLWEZI, Democratic Republic of Congo—Miners push bicycles piled high with bags of a grayish-blue ore along a dusty road to a makeshift market. There, they line up at wholesalers with nicknames such as Crazy Jack and Boss Lee. Most of the buyers are Chinese. Those buyers then sell to […]

By Russell Gold BOSTON— Steven Miller watched the flooding of New York City during superstorm Sandy with a mixture of awe and dread. If New York’s subway tunnels could be inundated, he wondered, what about Boston’s “Big Dig,” the road network under the city and harbor? Mr. Miller, a geologist at the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, helped […]

By Russell Gold Ten years ago, I first interviewed a brash up-and-comer in the energy business named Aubrey McClendon. The chief executive of Chesapeake Energy, he was smart and personable. His bold vision of the future of energy struck me—and made me a little skeptical. McClendon said that there were lots of new places to drill; […]

By Russell Gold When oil prices started to edge down a year ago, most energy mavens thought the drop would be small and short-lived. Instead, the price of crude has plunged by about 60% from its 2014 peak—and suddenly looks likely to stay low for months and maybe years to come. The reason: In the […]

By Russell Gold FORT STOCKTON, Texas—A new energy boom is taking shape in the oil fields of west Texas, but it’s not what you think. It’s solar. Solar power has gotten so cheap to produce—and so competitively priced in the electricity market—that it is taking hold even in a state that, unlike California, doesn’t offer […]

By Russell Gold Imagine a mile-long train transporting crude oil derailing on an elevated track in Jersey City, N.J., across the street from senior citizen housing and 2 miles from the mouth of the Holland Tunnel to Manhattan. The oil ignites, creating an intense explosion and a 300-foot fireball. The blast kills 87 people right […]

By Dan Frosch and Russell Gold GILLETTE, Wyo.—After a natural-gas boom in the Powder River Basin here petered out several years ago, few energy companies were interested in the leftover wells pockmarking the prairie. Then Ed Presley came along. The burly, bearded speculator acquired roughly 3,000 idle wells, many for a few dollars. With a […]

By Russell Gold A surge of oil from outside of the Middle East flooded global energy markets. The world-wide thirst for crude didn’t keep up. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries stood by and watched as oil prices fell and then fell more. Welcome to the world of oil in 2015—a repeat in surprising […]

By Russell Gold Since the 1970s, Nigeria has sent a steady stream of high-quality crude oil to North American refineries. As recently as 2010, tankers delivered a million barrels a day. Then came the U.S. energy boom. By July of this year, oil imports from Nigeria had fallen to zero. Displaced by surging U.S. oil […]

By Russell Gold NEWARK, Del.—Early last year, a new kind of pipeline full of volatile oil appeared in this college town, halfway between Philadelphia and Baltimore. If it had been a traditional pipeline, there would have been government hearings and environmental reviews. There would be markers or signs along the line’s route and instructions for […]

By Russell Gold Oil prices posted their biggest one-day drop in nearly two years Tuesday as a U.S.-led wave of crude has crashed into weak global demand, threatening the stability of some countries and providing an economic lifeline to others. Tuesday’s slide of 4.5% by U.S. crude oil to $81.84 a barrel on the New […]

By Russell Gold and Erin Ailworth Tumbling oil prices are starting to frighten energy companies around the globe, especially drillers in North America, where crude is expensive to pump. Global oil prices have fallen about 8% in the past four weeks. The European oil benchmark closed Thursday at $90.05 a barrel, its lowest point in 29 months. […]